Option I: The Paris Convention

There is no need to register or pay a fee to obtain this right. The Applicant needs only to prove that they have filed a priority application and state in each application they file that their intention is to claim their priority date based upon the earlier application(s). In some cases an Applicant may file two or more priority applications during the first 12 months and claim priority from all of them at the end of the 12 months.

As of 2014 there are 176 countries signed on the Paris Convention. The United States, United Kingdom, member states of the European Union, member states of the FFR, Japan, China, India and Brazil are all members. Taiwan and Burma are not Paris Convention Signatories.

Option 1 is suitable for Applicants that know which jurisdictions are important to them and have sufficient cash on hand to cover concurrent filings in the countries on their list at the twelve month time point on the timeline, as well as anticipated future revenue sufficient to cover the cost of concurrent Examination in all jurisdictions on their list.

Option II: The Patent Convention Treaty (PCT)

The primary function of the PCT is to allow the applicant to "buy" an additional eighteen months in which to file applications claiming benefit of the priority date in additional jurisdictions. The Applicant buys this time by filing a PCT application and paying the associated PCT fee (typically on the order of three to four thousand US$). The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) administers this procedure. In return for the fee, the application is published in the WIPO database eighteen months from the priority date. In addition, WIPO (through participating patent offices) provides an initial search report citing prior publications against the patent claims and a written opinion in which the Examiner explains if and/or how the publications cited in the search report can be used to reject the various claims.

From the Applicant's point of view, the main reason for filing a PCT application is to defer costs into the future. By delaying fling in additional jurisdictions to the 30 month time point, Examination in those jurisdictions, and the expenses associated with Examination) are deferred to 40-60 months (estimated) on the timeline.

The Concept of Division

A good patent practitioner will often identify several different potentially patentable features in the Inventor's disclosure. By relating to each of these features separately in the priority application, each feature can be made to enjoy the priority date. While it may cost a bit more to draft the application this way, there are two advantages to this practice.

http://patentagentone.com

Contact
IPAttitude LLC